Starting Out

I realised I wanted to become a theatre director when I was about 17. I secured a place at art school, but 'sensibly' went to Cambridge instead, where I studied English under Margot Heinemann, among others.

I directed and designed (at least) fifteen student productions, including an award-winning Measure for Measure that transferred to the Almeida from the 1981 Edinburgh Festival. At Cambridge I worked with many people who are now household names.

In 1982 I was awarded an Arts Council Bursary at the Almeida for a year.

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

For most of the 1980s, I was Associate Director at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

All my productions were of new plays from Scotland or abroad, and I directed a number of remarkable young actors, including Tilda Swinton, Ken Stott, Simon Russell Beale, Alan Cumming, Kate Duchene, Kathryn Hunter and Ewen Bremmer.

The Conquest of the South Pole

Alan Cumming, Sam Graham, Alastair Galbraith and Paul Higgins

Six transferred to London: Michel Tremblay's Sandra/Manon (Donmar); Mario Vargas Llosa's Kathie and the Hippopotamus and White Rose (Almeida); John McKay's Dead Dad Dog (Royal Court); and the British premieres of two plays by Manfred Karge: the Time Out Award‐winning Man to Man and The Conquest of the South Pole (both to the Royal Court).

Man to Man

Tilda Swinton

National Theatre

In the early 1990s, I was Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio, where my work included Marivaux’ The Lottery of Love; Goethe's Torquato Tasso (Cottesloe); the anonymous A Yorkshire Tragedy (Cottesloe); the British premiere of Peter Handke's The Long Way Round (Cottesloe); and a devised show for the under‐fives The Magic Carpet (Cottesloe and Olivier).

English Touring Theatre

In January 1993, I founded English Touring Theatre (ETT). My first production was Hamlet with Alan Cumming and Eleanor Bron, which transferred to the Donmar and received two Shakespeare Globe Nominations and a TMA Best Actor Award.

Hamlet

Alan Cumming

Subsequent productions included A Doll’s House (with Kelly Hunter); The Beaux’ Stratagem (with Deborah Findlay); As You Like It (TMA Best Actress, Kelly Hunter); The School for Wives; Macbeth (co‐production with the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith); Hedda Gabler (TMA Best Touring Production; Ian Charleson Award, Alexandra Gilbreath; also Donmar); Henry IV Parts One and Two with Timothy West and Samuel West (also Old Vic); The Seagull (Ian Charleson Award, Mark Bazeley; also Donmar); Marty Cruickshank's A Difficult Age; The Taming of the Shrew (with Kacey Ainsworth); Don Juan; The Master Builder (TMA Best Supporting Actress, Emma Cunniffe); The Cherry Orchard with Prunella Scales; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Ghosts (TMA Best Actress, Diana Quick; MEN Award) and King Lear (TMA Best Actor, Timothy West; MEN Award; also Old Vic).

As Artistic Director I produced the world premieres of Jonathan Harvey’s Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (Donmar and West End); Hushabye Mountain (Hampstead Theatre, directed by Paul Miller, with Andrew Lincoln); The York Realist (Royal Court and West End, written and directed by Peter Gill); French Without Tears (directed by Paul Miller); Richard Bean’s Honeymoon Suite (Royal Court, directed by Paul Miller); and Uncle Vanya (Rose, Kingston, directed by Peter Hall).

I maintained my connection with the NT Studio through the Cohen Foundation Training Director Scheme: Mick Gordon, Erica Whyman, Arlette George, Tim Stark, Bijan Sheibani, Lucy Kerbel and Jamie Harper. Other Assistant Directors include Thea Sharrock, Sascha Wares and Josie Rourke. I stepped down in April 2008 after fifteen years at the helm.

In 2013 I directed a new production of my own translation of Ibsen’s Ghosts to mark ETT’s 20th Anniversary.

The York Realist

Caroline O'Neill, Anne Reid, Ian Mercer and Lloyd Owen

Rose Theatre, Kingston

I was Artistic Director of the Rose Theatre in Kingston for six years from January 2008 until January 2014. I opened the theatre, with Peter Hall as Director Emeritus. Opening a large new theatre and securing its funding and developing its audience base was a huge but fascinating challenge.

My productions there included A Christmas Carol; The Winslow Boy (with Timothy West); Miss Julie; Treasure Island; Joe Penhall’s Dumb Show (with Sanjeev Bhaskar); Hay Fever (with Celia Imrie); As You Like It; The Importance of Being Earnest and the première of Harley Granville Barker’s Farewell to the Theatre (both with Jane Asher) and my translation of The Lady from the Sea (with Joely Richardson).

The Lady from the Sea

Joely Richardson

The Vortex

David Dawson and Kerry Fox

Also Pinero’s The Second Mrs Tanqueray (with Laura Michelle Kelly); The Vortex (with Kerry Fox, David Dawson and James Dreyfus); Peter Nichols’ A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (with Ralf Little, coproduction with Liverpool Playhouse) and Ghosts (coproduction with ETT).

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Ralf Little

Hay Fever

Josh Mcguire, Celia Imrie and Georgia Maguire

I produced three productions directed by the late Sir Peter Hall: Love’s Labour’s Lost; Bedroom Farce; and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (with Dame Judi Dench); a new musical by George Stiles, The Three Musketeers; two family shows, The Snow Queen and Cinderella; and revivals of Michael Frayn’s Here and Richard Bean’s Smack Family Robinson.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Judi Dench

Royal Court Theatre

I directed the British premiere of Klaus Pohl's Karate Billy Comes Home.

I've directed two double bills at the Royal College of Music: Chabrier's A Wasted Education and Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Teiresias in 2017; and Peter Maxwell-Davies' The Lighthouse and Huw Watkins' In The Locked Room in 2018.

I directed Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress for British Youth Opera in 2018.

The Jacobin

Bonaventura Bottone

Intermezzo

Janis Kelly

Other theatre

I directed Measure for Measure and The Comedy of Errors in Graz, Austria; A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Century Theatre; Heinrich von Kleist's The Broken Jug at the Raamtheater in Antwerp and Macbeth in Bochum and Neuss.

In Britain I directed Look Back in Anger and Sternheim's Knickers! at the Bristol Old Vic; Our Country’s Good in Leicester; Arthur Miller’s The Price for Oxford Stage Company; and A View from the Bridge for the Touring Consortium.

I directed a second revival of Manfred Karge’s The Conquest of the South Pole at the Arcola.

I also directed the premiere of my own play, All Our Children, at the Jermyn Street Theatre.

Awards

My work has won many awards: three Edinburgh Fringe Firsts; a Time Out Award; six TMA Awards; two Ian Charleson Awards; several Manchester Evening News Awards; and Joint Winner of the 2003 Shakespeare Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Prize.

In 2010 the Rose was awarded the Best Contribution to the Community in the Kingston Business Awards.